


Chronicle

by oshjoshmgosh



Series: Forced Evolution [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: AU-Chronicle, Canon-Typical Violence, M/M, Other, Post-Canon, Pre-Relationship, Psychic Abilities
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-25
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:33:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23303956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oshjoshmgosh/pseuds/oshjoshmgosh
Summary: "You fell through the bed!""You flew!"A routine patrol through the Preserve turns out to not be so routine. Will new powers be enough of an edge for Liam's Puppy Pack(TM) to overcome the threat of Monroe once and for all? Or is there more to that magic disappearing space rock than they first thought?Part 1/4 of my sci-fantasy epic.
Relationships: Corey Bryant/Mason Hewitt, Liam Dunbar/Theo Raeken
Series: Forced Evolution [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1689988
Comments: 19
Kudos: 67





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the movie Chronicle, but there is no need to watch it before reading. I just took the idea of a magic space rock giving psychic powers and ran with it.
> 
> I hope you enjoy! This fic is a prequel work to another work I've got ideas for, so expect more than just this in the future!
> 
> Let me know what you think!

Mason’s panting was almost loud enough to drown out the crash. The only reason Liam stopped to even question it was because Theo paused and looked toward the sound, confirming Liam hadn’t just imagined it.

“What was that?” he asked softly, eyes trained on the older boy’s face.

“What was what?” Corey asked, slowing to a stop and taking hold of Mason’s arm, halfway keeping his boyfriend from collapsing. Theo looked back to Liam, contemplating, before answering.

“It was probably nothing.”

“We are on patrol,” Liam responded, offering an easy excuse to deviate from their boring circuit. “We should probably make sure it’s nothing.”

“Can we walk?” Theo smirked at the human.

“Yes, Mason, we can walk.” Liam chuckled while his friend sneered, lips curling up as he mockingly mouthed back Theo’s words. The effect was made funnier by the way he kept taking great gasps of air.

“Good job for keeping up with us. You’ll be able to run a full patrol in no time!” Theo and Liam shared a smirk as they turned away from the couple, leading them toward the crash they had both heard. Corey continued offering his boyfriend condolence and praise as they walked. After five minutes Liam was about ready to tell them to shut up, but then Theo stuck his hand out to stop him.

“Smell that?” Liam inhaled in response before he’d even thought to do so. There was an airy burnt scent in the air, like that time their science teacher had lit a hydrogen balloon on fire. Under that was something crystalline, and vaguely bitter.

“Any ideas?” he asked, grimacing at Theo’s head shake. “Let’s go look, I guess.”

“Wait, you guys can’t tell what it is?” Mason had wrangled his breathing under control, finally, so the question came out clear. Both of them shook their heads. “Goodie. Guess we’re going in on full alert, huh?” Theo huffed out a disbelieving chuckle.

“We’re on patrol, Mason. We’re _always_ supposed to be on full alert.”

“I mean I know-“

“Chill, Mason. We know, he’s mocking you.” Liam interrupted, punching Theo in the arm and turning him back toward their target. Mason grumbled behind them, but neither of them paid attention to his words.

It only took them another minute of walking before the scents led them to the apparent source of the crashing sound. A small crater bored into the dirt of the preserve, the ground burnt in a circle stretching about two feet around the hole. Stepping up to the edge of the burnt region, Liam shivered.

“Why the hell is it cold?” Theo shrugged, not really paying him attention. His eyes were trained on whatever was in the hole, so Liam took another step forward to see for himself. Ignoring the smells and the rapidly dropping temperature – it had been a balmy seventy degrees ten feet back, and now Liam felt the need for a winter coat – he leaned forward to peer into the hole.

A couple feet down, resting in the center of the hole, was…something.

“The hell is that?” Theo just shrugged again.

“What is it? Can I see?” Mason’s voice came closer without waiting for their approval, he and Corey both coming around to peer into the hole as well.

“That’s…um…”

“Oh, it looks like one of those new Pokemon!” Corey exclaimed suddenly. Liam peered up at him, raising an eyebrow in question. “You know, from the Sun and Moon games. It’s like a little star guy that has really good defenses, until it gets hit and loses the armor, then it has shitty defense and great attack! Umm…Minior!” Liam just blinked at the boy, turning to look at Theo – who was also just blinking – before looking back. Corey’s expression grew mulish. “Don’t judge me for liking things.”

“I’m not, it’s adorable that you still like Pokemon.” Theo’s voice was dry and amused, clearly mocking the other chimera. Liam just shook his head and smiled, kneeling down to get closer.

The thing really did look like a star. Or maybe a glass sea urchin? It had a round body, probably no bigger than Liam’s fist, that looked like it was made of rock, or a dull, craggy metal. Protruding from the body was a collection of crystalline spikes, each probably the size of a finger, and numbering maybe a dozen on the high end.

“You gonna grab it?” Theo asked softly. Liam nodded, reaching down into the hole with his right hand. The cold grew sharper, burning his fingers, and then he realized his earlier estimate of ‘a couple feet’ had been accurate. His arm was too short.

“No. I don’t think we can reach it without digging it out a little.”

“Just stick your whole body in, Liam. Not like you’re gonna fall.”

“I don’t want to burn my whole face off!” he stood back up and showed his fingers, which had definitely dried and cracked and still looked a little red, even as they rapidly healed. Theo blinked at them in surprise.

“I’ve got some paracord,” Mason announced, scrambling for his belt. “I can make a lasso and we can just pull it up!” Three pairs of eyes blinked at him as he undid his belt, then began pulling paracord from its underside. He was so focused on spooling out several feet of paracord that he failed to even notice the silence as the three non-humans just stared at him, dumbstruck. It wasn’t until he’d looked into the hole and made some mental calculations that he considered the length good enough and finally looked up, blinking back at the rest of them. “What?”

Theo was the first to recover.

“You were definitely a Boyscout.”

“No he wasn’t.” Liam responded, still stunned. “They weren’t cool with gay people when we thought about joining, and he wasn’t about to try to play straight in front of a bunch of guys that might have been cute _and_ handy.”

“Wow, dude, way to expose me like that. Yes, I carry paracord on all my belts! With the insanity of our lives, who’s to say I won’t need to restrain someone? Or rappel down a previously unknown cliff? Or lasso strange objects too deep in a hole for us to grab out?” He snarked with a pointed glare, causing Theo to bark out an unwilling laugh. Liam grinned, clapping Mason on the back.

“Good job, dude, you would’ve made Scoutmaster Daddy proud.” Mason blushed and gave him a well-deserved punch. He then turned to tying a knot, forming the paracord into a lasso. It only took him a few seconds, and Liam was actually impressed. His awe grew as Mason lowered the loop into the hole, wiggled it until it stretched over several spikes, and then pulled it in a way that cinched the knot, tightening it around the spikes and body of the thing. Mason gave a few tugs, but apparently it was too heavy.

“Alright, I did my part, now you strong boys get to do the heavy lifting.” He handed off the loose end of paracord, still leading back to his belt – how much did he still have?? He and Theo both grabbed the paracord, feeling it unspool further from Mason’s belt, and then took up positions on either side of the hole. They wrapped the cord around their hands for grip, then looked up at each other.

“Ready?” Liam nodded in response, and then began to pull as he felt Theo’s muscles engage.

The thing was fucking heavy.

Liam knew that he was engaging as much of his supernatural strength as he possessed, and it still took them several heaves to dislodge the thing from where it had embedded itself in the earth. It got easier after that, but he doubted if he could have pulled it out by himself even if it had been loose to begin with.

The cold hit them like knives as they drew it out, both boys feeling their skin begin to crack and burn as it got closer. Finally they pulled it free of the hole, shifted it and dropped it on the edge of the burnt section of ground. They leaped free and hissed in pain, both grimacing as they healed from the freezerburn.

Finally free of the hole, the boys all gather as close to the object as they can without freezing burning themselves. They stare for long seconds before Mason looks up, startling and yelping.

“Theo! Your nose!” Theo snaps his gaze up to Mason and blinks, lifting a finger to touch the blood dribbling from his nose. The boys all look around and notice that none of them lack blood, slowly trickling from each of their noses. “Guys, I think we should-“

A deep, reverberating tone rolls away from the object. The tone shakes them down to their bones, feeling like its reaching into their cores and weighing whatever counts for a soul.

None of them can react fast enough, or even notice, when four of the crystalline spikes launch from the body of the thing like bullets. Liam only even knows what happened afterward, as pain pulses through his gut and he notices four empty holes in the craggy body of the object.

“Fuck.” Mason gasps, falling to the ground first. Fear pulses through Liam at the sight, Mason gasping as his hands clench over a spike protruding from his stomach. Strength flees his own limbs shortly after, and he notices he has a spike of his own, embedded in his thigh. Theo and Corey both fall to the ground as well, hands grasping their own spikes.

Blood is flowing steadily from their noses now, dripping onto the ground along with that from their wounds.

Liam can’t do more than think ‘what a stupid way to die’ before darkness slides over his vision.

Except he doesn’t die.

He comes awake gasping, hands scrambling at smooth flesh that is not interrupted by a crystalline spike. Three other gasps echo his own, his eyes frantically scanning his three friends as they all jolt upright clenching at wounds that don’t exist. Dried blood stains their faces and clothes, but even Mason has healed like nothing was wrong in the first place.

The object is gone.

There is still a hole in the ground, and the dirt around the hole is still scorched, but the biting cold has vanished along with the thing itself.

“What the everloving fuck…” Theo wonders, eyes jolting around in search of any clue. Liam is the first to haul himself to his feet, looking down into the empty hole and then around at his friends.

“We didn’t dream that. That happened. Right?” Three nods answer him, the other boys all lifting themselves to standing as well. Liam takes a deep breath, stalling the freakout that’s trying to rise up beneath the confusion. It’s okay to be confused, he tells himself. Something freaky just happened, but he can’t freak out about it just yet.

“We should tell Scott.” He says firmly. That should be their first order of business. Theo looks at him blankly, but then nods in agreement.

“We were on patrol, after all. And something weird happened.” In lieu of answering, Liam pulls out his phone, wincing when he sees that nearly three hours have passed and he has missed calls from Scott, Derek, and his mom. He quickly calls Scott back, his alpha answering after only two rings.

“Liam! Are you okay? What happened?”

“I’m fine, Scott, we’re all fine. Probably.”

“Probably? What happened? Why only probably?”

“We uh…” he pauses, unsure how to explain what exactly happened without sounding insane. Deciding it didn’t really matter, that there was no good way to explain it, he just vomited whatever felt right.

“We found a thing. It was weird, and cold, probably came from space. It shot us with spikes, we all passed out, then we woke up. We’re all healed, even Mason, and the thing is gone.”

Nailed it.

Theo rolled his eyes, and Scott remained silent on the other line.

“Let’s meet up and we can give you more details.” Theo suggested, knowing Scott would hear him. There was a sound like Scott nodding, then a verbal agreement when he probably realized they couldn’t see him.

“Yeah, okay. Come to my house as soon as you can, I’ll call Derek and Argent.” Liam hung up shortly afterward and the four gathered themselves to leave. Mason paused though, pulling out his phone and putting a pin in their location on his Maps app.

“Smart.” Theo commented, nodding and then turning away.

“Thanks.” Liam hid a grimace at Mason’s clear discomfort. Everyone was still getting used to Theo, but at least they weren’t openly hostile toward him anymore. At least, most of them weren’t.

Argent still regularly threatened him, and Liam had made a point of standing between the two of them at all times.

The walk back was a lot longer, since they weren’t running. Mason made good use of the time recoiling his paracord into its hidden arrangement behind his belt. Liam idly wondered how he managed to hide it all.

“I’ve got some loops on the undersides of all my belts, and I learned a way to wrap the paracord that is kind of like simplified knitting. It sits in the loops, but if I pull the end it unravels.”

“What?” Liam was staring at Mason, while Theo and Corey were looking at him in confusion. Mason looked up and blinked at the three pairs of eyes on him.

“Liam asked how I hid the paracord.”

“No I didn’t.”

“No he didn’t.” Theo and Corey both said at the same time as he did. Mason blinked at them for a minute, eyes slowly widening.

“Holy shit.” Liam looked at Theo, then back to Mason. “No, I’m not hurt. Yes, I’m fine. Guys…” Liam blinked at the unasked questions. “Guys, I think I’m hearing your thoughts.” Mason’s eyes were wide, and his emotional scents were rising. Fear was prominent, but something sharp and acidic, like a pineapple without the fruit – maybe excitement – was covering that rapidly. An ethereal mud scent floated through the mix, but Liam hadn’t the faintest idea what that could be.

_So you can hear this, right?_

Liam asked the question silently, lifting an eyebrow at his friend. Mason’s eyes turned and caught his, and he nodded.

_My mouth isn’t moving, but you can hear me._

Another nod.

_Yeah, you can definitely read minds, dude!_

Mason’s gaze was flickering between the three of them, and Liam noticed that all three of them had been staring silently at their fourth friend.

“Okay, you’ve all gotta stop talking at me at once, it’s not easier to listen to all of you just because you’re not using your mouths!” Liam cackled loudly at Mason’s scolding, Theo and Corey both grinning as well. “You think it’s because of the crystal thing? You guys can’t read minds, right?

“Stupid question. I would know if you could.” Theo rolled his eyes in response. Mason continued as they all began walking. “I wonder if you guys will get any cool powers from it. If this is from the thing. It’s gotta be, right? Like, my nose bled, and then it stabbed me. It did the same to you, but you’re all supernatural so maybe it won’t work the same?

“Rude, Theo.” Theo smirked at whatever thought Mason had responded to. Liam just rolled his eyes and kept walking.

Soon enough they were back at Theo’s truck and on their way to Scott’s for the debrief.

“Oh shit.” Mason announced at the first stop light, voice and scent both dark with dread. Liam raised an eyebrow and sent out a mental question, rearing back when Mason flinched. “Dude, please don’t. That was like…a mental scream, and I’m…I can’t _not_ hear everyone. There are like, fifty people running through my head right now.” Liam turned and looked outside the car, and sure enough there were several cars, pedestrians, and buildings – undoubtedly containing their own people – all within sight. If Mason was hearing all of them…

“Can you just like, focus on one voice? Or focus on drowning them all out with your own thoughts? Meditation or something? Maybe it’ll work like sound does for us!” Mason nodded and closed his eyes, breathing in and out slowly and heavily. Every once in a while as they drove he would press his hands against his eyes, shake himself out, take a few breaths, and then return to sitting still with a serene expression.

Liam was actually pretty impressed by the time they made it to Scott’s house. The three of them had chattered lowly about nothing important while Mason sat, silent. As the car pulled to a stop he inhaled and exhaled heavily, opening his eyes and reaching for the door.

“It’s easier here, where there are only houses and most people aren’t home. I think my range is only like, a hundred feet; I can only hear up to those houses.” He pointed at two houses in either direction, both with four houses between them and Scott’s place. The three of them nodded in unison, and Mason smirked at them. “All three of you just thought ‘good to know,’ and then some variation of ‘what a nerd’ or ‘makes sense he’s already figuring shit out.’”

“You narrating our thoughts is gonna get real old, real quick.” Theo snarked, turning for the house. Mason just stuck his middle finger up at the chimera’s retreating back. Liam grinned and turned to follow Theo into the house, catching the scuff of both Mason’s and Corey’s feet as they trailed behind him.

“So Mason’s hearing people’s thoughts? What happened?” Scott’s voice was full of concern, but he was also wearing his Alpha-in-potential-crisis tone. Chris Argent strolled into the living room from the kitchen as soon as Mason and Corey closed the door behind them.

Theo handled the accounting of their patrol, voice quick and clinical but detailed. He included things that Liam would have skimmed over, like the scents and sounds. The details continued when he got to the object, but it was still abundantly clear by the time Theo finished his explanation that no one really knew anything.

“It was just gone?” Argent’s voice was thick with disbelief, and Liam couldn’t help growling lowly.

“Yeah, it was just gone. Sorry for not keeping track of it while we thought we were dead. My bad.”

“Liam…” Scott’s voice was torn between pained and scolding, but he just held his glare at Argent until the older man’s attention was drawn by Mason taking up the story.

“It was almost like nothing had happened at all, except the hole was – and is – still there, and we all were covered in blood.” He lifted up his still-bloody shirt, swiping his hand over his unmarked stomach. “I totally got stabbed, but even my human body was all healed up, and the spikes that stabbed us were gone too. It was like a crazy half-real dream!”

“And the voices in your head?” Mason scowled, and so did Liam and Corey. Theo’s face remained an implacable mask, like it always did around Argent.

“You know, I can hear your skepticism in both your voice and your thoughts, so I’m gonna kill this right now.” Mason grumbled. “Think of a secret you don’t mind me revealing, cause I’m gonna announce it right here.” After maybe two seconds, Mason made good on his promise.

“Allison was almost named McKinley, after the mountain your dad took you on for your first winter hunt.” Argent’s eyebrows lifted clear up to his hairline, obviously not having expected Mason to really be able to hear the secret.

“Alright, so we’ve got a mind reader now. The rest of you got shot too, any powers yet? Obviously not mind reading, or you’d have said so.” All three of them shrugged.

“Not yet. We were wondering if we’d get anything, considering our healing may have overcome whatever happened to make Mason psychic.”

“Well, keep an eye on yourselves.” Argent commanded, as if doing otherwise was possible.

“I can send you the coordinates, I pinned the location.” Mason announced, watching Argent and taking his phone out. The older man startled, and Liam hid a smirk – Theo didn’t – as he realized Mason had probably responded to Argent’s thoughts about wanting to visit the place.

“Is that everything?” Liam asked, ready to go home. “Mom wanted Theo and I home for dinner, and we’ve still gotta clean up from, you know, getting stabbed by mysterious crystals.”

“I’m glad you guys are alright.” Scott said earnestly, his eyebrows crumpling up in their patented Concerned Relief face. “Yeah, you guys can head home. Call me if anything changes?” All three of them nodded, though Theo with an accompanying eye roll.

“Mason.” Theo called out as he and Corey moved toward Mason’s sedan. The human turned and lifted an eyebrow, and Theo spoke aloud even though Liam knew he wouldn’t need to. “You should see if you can do anything intentional with your mind reading. Practice controlling it, and everything about it will become easier.” Mason stared for a few minutes, obviously thrown by the free advice from someone Liam knew he didn’t really care for. Eventually he nodded and responded with a soft ‘thanks’ before turning away.

Dinner was typical for Liam’s family, and soon enough the two boys were lounging in Liam’s room.

“I really hope I get powers.”

“You’ve already got powers, Liam. You’re a freaking werewolf, and barely. Do you think you could even handle more?” Liam stuck his tongue out, and Theo threw the stress ball he’d been idly tossing in response. Liam flinched, but the ball never hit him. Opening his eyes, he found it floating an inch away from his face. As soon as he acknowledged it, the ball fell, rolling across the ground while the two boys followed it with stunned eyes.

“I guess you got your wish.” Theo said dumbly. “Do it again!”

“I don’t know what I did!” Theo then grabbed another stress ball – Liam had an entire drawer full of them from when his mom hoped they would help with his anger – and lobbed it at Liam’s face. He tried thinking of stopping it in the split second he had before it collided with his face.

He failed.

Thankfully stress balls were soft, since it pelted him right in the nose.

“Come on, Dumbar!” Irked, Liam glared at the ball on the floor and imagined it flying across the room at Theo.

Nothing happened.

Glaring harder, he tried again.

And again.

And again.

Finally he switched up his method, and imagined stretching his hand out and grabbing the ball.

It shifted, and then rolled when his surprise broke his concentration. Looking wide-eyed at Theo, who returned the expression, Liam turned back to the ball.

He carefully imagined stretching further than his arms could reach and grabbing the ball. Liam was careful to not disturb his focus when it shifted as he imagine wrapping his hand around it, instead lifting it just barely off the ground.

Then he hurled it at Theo, just like he would with his arm.

It flew across the room and struck the chimera with a soft thud.

“Dude!”

“Dude!” he exclaimed back, in a much different tone. Theo’s affront melted quickly into a bright grin. His eyes turned to focus on the ball, and Liam grinned and waited.

And waited.

“I imagined I was picking it up, just like I would with my hand.” Theo’s eyes flickered to his briefly before returning to the ball.

It wobbled.

Liam’s eyes widened, excitement coursing through him. He looked around for the other stress ball while Theo was struggling with his own. Finding it, he imagined grabbing it and pulling it closer, slowly.

It followed his thoughts, as easily as if he’d walked over and picked it up.

Dropping it gently in his hand, he grinned at Theo as the older boy glared and the stress ball hovering in front of his face.

Liam’s phone ringing broke both their concentration, Theo’s ball falling to the floor as he turned to look at Liam scrambling to pick up the call.

“Mason.” He announced, sliding the answer button to the middle of his screen.

“Corey fell through the bed!” Mason’s voice screamed out as soon as the call was connected. Liam and Theo both just looked at each other, unsure how to receive that information.

“What?” he asked intelligently.

“We were making out, right? So my parents get home and slam the door really hard. It startles Corey and he falls through the bed. Like that one X-Men girl from the cartoon! Or the second and third movies! The one who can run through walls!”

“Shadow Cat?” both Liam and Theo suggest, smirking at each other.

“Yeah! Her! He phased through the bed like Shadow Cat!”

“That’s…really freakin’ cool, I gotta say!” Liam announced, grin overtaking his face. “Theo and I discovered we can move things with our minds!”

“Dude! You guys have telekinesis?! I’m so jealous!”

“You can read minds!” Liam yelled, laughing in incredulity. “Dude we’ve all got psychic powers! Find out if you or Corey have telekinesis too! Just, find something and imagine you’re grabbing it with your hand.”

Liam watched Theo poking the wall while he waited for Mason and Corey. “Are you trying to phase through it?” He nodded in response.

“I’m also trying to figure out if there’s a rhyme or reason to who got what powers,” he said, voice musing. “I assume you haven’t heard anyone’s thoughts?” Liam nodded. “I haven’t either, and I’ve actively tried to read your mind a few times tonight. So it’s just Mason that got telepathy.

“Both of us got telekinesis, but I feel like it’s a lot easier for you.” Totally not proving his point, Liam lifted the ball Theo had dropped with his mind and spun it in front of his face. It was literally as easy as thought. “See?” Liam just nodded, focused on keeping the stress ball spinning in front of him. “Corey can phase through things, which I actually think goes suspiciously well with his invisibility. Can either of us phase through things? Does it _actually_ have something to do with his chameleon half? Am I going to get something else entirely because of my Coyote half? Is telekinesis some inherent level up for werewolves, which is why I sort of have it but not as strongly as you?”

“How in the hell have you thought so much about this? It’s been like five minutes!” Theo smirked and shrugged.

“We’ve always known I’m smarter than you.” Liam opened his mouth to respond, but Corey’s shout from the other line diverted both of their attention.

“I did it! I moved Mason’s curtains!” Theo stuck his hand out as if to say ‘there you go.’

“Theo’s got a theory that our powers have something to do with our supernatural status. Telekinesis for werewolf parts, telepathy for the human, phasing for the chameleon.” Mason absolutely geeked out over the theory, devolving into half sentences as he ran away with the idea. Theo returned to lifting the stress ball in the air while Liam fed Mason’s wilder ideas.

He zoned out once Mason delved into genetic makeup and metaphysical frequencies and other made up words.

“I wonder if Theo will get something unique for being half coyote?”

They debated what other powers there might be for Theo to inherit, but it by the time everyone headed off to bed there had been no progress.

Not until Liam tried waking him up from a nightmare.

He’d known that Theo suffered from nightmares. The other boy had even confided in him that most of them were a replay of his time in the Skinwalker prison. In the two weeks Theo has lived with his family, Liam has heard him have nightmares every night. The first night Liam raced into his room, afraid he was being attacked. Theo had startled awake and kicked him out. Most nights Theo would wake himself, and Liam would slide back into sleep.

This time Liam reached out a hand to shake his friend awake.

Pain blossomed in his chest and he looked down to find a pale arm extending out from his chest. Connected to it was a girl, soaking wet, and glaring at him with black eyes.

Tara.

“Oh shit.” He ground out, teeth clenched against the pain in his chest.

As suddenly as Tara arrived she was gone, and the pain with her.

“Liam, what the fuck?!” he blinked to find Theo glaring at him. His hand was still wrapped around the older boy’s arm, claws extended and piercing his skin. Blood dribbled down on to the mattress. Stunned, Liam unclasped his hand and stumbled back from Theo, knees giving out and dropping him to the floor.

“Liam? Are you alright?”

Liam blinked again, flaring his eyes to bring Theo into sharp relief against the darkness. The older boy’s face shone with sweat, and his heart was too fast, but his face shone with concern as it looked down at him from the bed. He blinked and felt at his chest, finding it whole and unmarked.

Tara was nowhere to be seen.

“I…uh…” he stammered, unsure of what to say. He settled on “I’m okay.” Liam took a few fortifying breaths and then looked back up at Theo. “I, um…I think…I think I know what your special psychic power is.”

*

“Theo can cast illusions?” Scott asked, eyebrows lifting up into his hairline. “Corey can phase through things,” he continued, turning to look at the other chimera.

“They can both use telekinesis too, but not as strongly as I can. For the third time, Scott!” Liam threw his hands into the air, turning away from his alpha. With a thought he opened the fridge and took out a La Croix, cracking it open just like he would with his hands before bringing it close enough to grab with his real hands. He chugged it, focusing on the burning prickle of the carbonation in his throat. He was tired of everyone freaking out about their new powers.

He realized retrieving the La Croix like he just had did nothing to help his frustration. Everyone was staring at him. He rolled his eyes and took another massive gulp.

“I’m not too fond of Theo having even more power.” Liam barely managed to restrain crushing the can.

“No one asked your opinion, Argent.”

“Thanks for your help, Liam, I don’t think I could’ve handled his doubt by myself.” Irked, Liam hurled the can at Theo’s response. He blinked as the other boy caught the can – undoubtedly with the help of his new powers – and took a gulp with a smirk. Liam yanked the can back, finishing it off with an aggressive swallow before crushing it down to a compact ball.

“I’m not sure I disagree with Chris, Liam. Yes, Theo’s helped us, but-“

“But what, Scott?” He turned back to his alpha, throwing the crumpled aluminum ball away and guiding it into the recycling bin without looking. “What’s the play? Monroe is still out killing people. Do you think we can afford to sideline Theo? Put him back in the ground? Kill him?” Liam glared, waiting a beat for Scott to respond. When he didn’t, he continued.

“Even putting aside the moral aspect of doing either of those things, do you think you could?” Scott remained silent, face clearly showing the internal debate of whether to argue with Liam or be consoling. He knew his alpha was conflicted when it came to Theo.

Argent wasn’t.

“I’ve handled worse than Theo, Liam. I-“ he turned his glare back to the older man.

“I don’t think you could do jack shit, Argent.” Looking down, his eyes locked on the gun Chris always carried around. Reaching out a hand, he pulled it from its holster. Eyes widened as it smacked loudly into his hand. “Stop the bullet, Theo.” He then turned and pointed the gun at the chimera, pulling the trigger.

“Jesus fucking Christ, Liam!” Mason hollered, flinching violently into Corey at the sound. Liam had watched Theo flinch, but he could also see the bullet hovering in the air an inch away from the boy’s shoulder. It dropped to the ground, the tinkling sound cutting into the silence like another explosion. Liam turned back to Argent and returned his gun to its holster.

No one could do anything but stare at him.

“I told you all when I brought him back, that I would take responsibility for Theo. So let me take responsibility for him. Stop worrying about what he might be plotting. Stop making accusations and threats. Trust me, okay? Especially since I’m the only one who _could_ handle him, now.”

“But will you?” Scott’s voice was soft, and Liam could see the concern now overwhelming his expression. It made doubt and hurt curdle in his gut. Of course Scott didn’t trust him to stop Theo if the chimera turned out to be evil again. Of course _that_ was at the heart of the matter. It made sense, since Liam was the one that Theo tried to get to kill Scott before.

“Liam, he didn’t-“

“I guess I understand where your doubt’s coming from, now.” He cut Mason off, his voice soft. He knew the hurt was probably all over his face, and of course his best friend could hear his thoughts now. He couldn’t do anything about his thoughts. His face though, he smoothed out into a grin and shook his head. “We’ll just go.” He muttered, turning away from his alpha and walking toward the door.

“Liam, wait-“

“Don’t want to distract you from Monroe. Having to keep watch over two people you don’t trust can’t make finding her any easier.” Derek opened his mouth to say something, standing in Liam’s way. Before he could, Liam simply lifted him into the air and shifted him a few feet to the side, dropping him back to the floor as he opened the door and strode out of Scott’s house.

Liam knew he was being dramatic, but he was also hurt and knew that if he stayed he would probably get angry. Now that he had psychic powers that responded flawlessly to his every whim, he felt the need to keep his anger contained more than ever. It was better for everyone if he just left, letting Scott and Argent plot with everyone else however they needed to. Theo would follow him, he knew.

Well, he hoped.

His hope was fulfilled by the sound of the front door closing behind him, followed by another set of steps. He continued his path forward until he reached Theo’s truck, spinning around to thump back against it while he glared at Theo’s approach. The chimera strolled forward, hands in his pockets, seemingly free of worry. Inside, Liam could hear Mason still talking with Scott and Argent. He didn’t really care what they had to say.

“So? Are we leaving?” Liam blinked, having expected Theo to make some comment about getting along with his alpha. Or about sticking up for him when he was capable of doing it himself. Theo just cocked an eye, Liam’s confusion apparently evident. “Dude, if you expect me to defend them, you’re gonna keep waiting.”

Of course he wouldn’t defend them. Theo’s morals weren’t the same as Liam’s, or Scott’s. Why would he care if Liam was at odds with his alpha? In fact, Theo would probably be glad of the rift. It could only help him, no matter what his hidden intentions.

“You know I don’t need Mason’s telepathy to see everything you’re thinking, right? You’re terrible at hiding things, little wolf.”

“Aren’t you gonna defend yourself then? If you know I’m thinking such uncharitable shit about you?” Theo just shrugged.

“Why bother? Sure, I could give you reassurances that I’m not gonna capitalize on you and Scott arguing. I could promise that my intentions are totally pure, try and convince you that you’re right to defend me from Scott and Argent.” Liam just raised his eyebrow. It was obvious what Theo was doing now.

It was the same thing he’d done when he just encouraged Liam to kill Nolan.

Theo smirked at him.

“You’re still a manipulative asshole.”

“You know exactly who I am.” The words were light, but they made Liam think of Theo’s nightmares. He thought of everything Theo had done, and realized that he really did. He had seen almost all of Theo’s faces. Theo had earned his trust with honeyed words and calculated pushes. He had played Liam like a fiddle.

He’d also been coerced and brainwashed into killing his own sister and then living with three evil scientists for nearly half his life. He’d been cast into hell to suffer having his heart ripped out of his chest over and over again for months.

He’d given up his life for Liam.

Liam had no doubt that Theo was manipulating him even now. The chimera wouldn’t know how to do anything else. But it was a double-edged manipulation. Every time Theo did something to make Liam feel for him, to make Liam trust him again, he was baring a part of himself that Liam could use against him. Theo had given Liam a leash wrapped around his own neck, and he wrapped it tighter with their every interaction.

He sighed, breaking the staring contest Theo had started with him.

“I do. I know exactly who you are.” He pushed off Theo’s truck and pulled the door open, hopping into the passenger seat and shutting the door behind himself. Theo slid into the driver’s seat a moment later, starting the truck and pulling away from the McCall house.


	2. Chapter 2

Nolan was acting suspicious.

Liam had told him the boy was jumping at shadows, but no one was really on speaking terms with the sophomore. It had only been a few weeks since he tried to shoot up Scott’s house, after all. Mason confirmed that he was paranoid, and that he believed he was being followed.

So Theo decided to validate his paranoia by following him.

An hour after stalking the boy, Theo cursed to himself. Nolan had been right to be paranoid.

There was a black SUV that was always within line of sight of the human. It trailed the school bus that Nolan took home. When his mom sent him out for groceries, it was down the street and stayed a block or two away. When he returned home it parked at the end of the street. Theo himself was always careful to stay out of sight, but he wasn’t particularly worried about what would happen if whoever was stalking Nolan found him.

He could protect himself better than ever these days.

Theo was debating calling the Sheriff to handle the people in the SUV – some of Monroe’s hunters, most likely – when they made their move. Nolan’s parents were going out on a date, leaving the kid home alone. Theo was in a tree in the backyard of the house across the street from Nolan’s, so he saw when the black SUV stopped in front of the driveway. Three men jumped out and walked up to Nolan’s door

He was too far to do anything to stop them, but he leaped to the ground and stole forward, keeping an eye on the people and the vehicle. The three men stopped on Nolan’s porch, knocking and waiting for the boy to answer. Stretching out with his senses, he determined no one else was in the car.

Nolan, like the worst paranoid person ever, opened the door.

As soon as it was open, the men stormed the house, shoving through the doorway and dragging Nolan with them. His scream was cut off by the closing of the door, and Theo swore lightly.

It would be up to him to save the little bastard.

Leaping from the tree and racing across the street, Theo threw open the door with a generous application of telekinesis. It banged against the wall and four pairs of eyes turned to him. One of the men reflexively fired a round of bullets at him.

Thank you, Liam, for being an asshole and showing Theo that he could stop bullets.

He did so, erecting a shield along his skin and letting them bang against his protected chest before falling harmlessly to the ground.

“Well, that was rude.” He quipped, smirking at the three men. Rossler, the one that Theo recognized, had Nolan in a headlock with a knife pressed to his neck.

“Well, if it isn’t the chimera. Come to save the little traitor?” Nolan’s heartbeat was pounding, and Theo was sure only part of it was fear. The boy had already received his fair share of to-be-bruises from the three in the time it took Theo to come to his rescue. “You know that Monroe could use someone like you. You let us handle Nolan, then the four of us can go pay Monroe a visit and she’ll help you shake free of McCall’s leash.”

Theo cocked his head, as if intrigued. Willing to spare a bit of his attention for Nolan’s safety, he envisioned a shield around the boy’s throat so that no rash action on Rossler’s part would cause him harm.

Obviously, none of the hunters could tell.

“What do you think Monroe could _possibly_ have to offer me? She already lost once. Why the hell would I put my eggs in her basket? Especially when I know she would sooner kill me than help me.”

“Fine, how about this?” The two men tensed up, as though the words were a signal to prepare to fire on him. Theo renewed the shield around himself too, although the effort of maintaining two different shields would quickly get tiring. “You turn around and leave now,” Rossler continued, “And we’ll let you. Pretend you never stumbled upon us, and we won’t kill you.”

Theo sighed. What a disappointment.

“Man, Monroe must have been desperate to recruit you guys. You’re terrible at this game.” The two no-name hunters sneered at him. He was getting bored. “Fine. I’m tired of this game anyway.” With a thought, the two hunters with guns were smashed into the ground, heads bouncing off the tile of the entryway. Rossler’s grip spasmed in surprise, raking the knife across Nolan’s neck.

Theo was glad he’d kept that shield up.

Gesturing uselessly, Nolan soared away from Rossler and the hunter was thrown up against a wall by Theo’s invisible force. A thought had Rossler’s arms wrenched painfully behind his back and another undid the man’s belt to then slither around and tie his arms in place.

“What the hell?!” Rossler howled, kicking fruitlessly where he hung suspended against the wall.

“I learned a few new tricks.” Theo shrugged, turning to face Nolan. “Are you alright?” The boy nodded, visibly shaken and a little bruised but otherwise unhurt. Theo deserved a medal for protecting the little asshole so well. “Why don’t you call the police? Tell Sheriff Stilinski that hunters came after you and that I’m keeping ‘em occupied.” Nolan nodded hesitantly, slowly climbing to his feet to retrieve his phone where Rossler had thrown it.

Theo turned back to the hunter.

“So. This could go several ways.” He pulled three chairs from the dining room into the entry way. Rossler was settled in one, and Theo split the bottom half of his pant legs into ribbons to tie his legs to the chair. He tied his shoelaces around the chair legs for good measure. Then he hoisted the two unconscious hunters into the other chairs, doing the same to them and then also using their belts to tie their arms around the backs of the chairs.

“The first, and probably best, option is that you tell me everything I want to know. You’ll get off pain free, I’ll get what I want, and I’ll let you go peacefully with the police officers.

“Fuck you, abomination.” Rossler sneered. Theo grinned. He imagined fire rolling underneath Rossler’s arms, and the man screamed accordingly.

“This is option two. I can torture you until you give me what I want. Except, worse than regular torture, you’ll never bear any physical scars from what I’m going to do to you. You’ll remember it happening. You’ll feel it happening.” He made Rossler see him walk closer and drop a scarab beetle onto the man’s arm, and then made the beetle dig into the man’s skin. The hunter gnashed his teeth and jerked in place as it broke through his skin and crawled inside his arm. “You’ll suffer agony you could never imagine, but only in your imagination.”

Releasing the scarab image, Theo imagined simple pain. Just in Rossler’s hands, and at a low level.

“What,” Rossler panted, his traitorous mind giving him a reprieve from Theo’s illusions, “The hell are you? What are you doing?!” Theo raised the pain, smirking as Rossler clenched his teeth again.

“Tell me why you came after Nolan?”

“Fuck you, it’s not a secret. He betrayed us; he deserves to die like the rest of you.” Theo cocked his head and smiled. He remembered a torture technique The Psychologist had taught him and decided it could work well here. Releasing the pain, Theo traded it for ecstasy running through Rossler’s veins. The man’s eyes bulged. He panted, body warring with the two extremes Theo had him going through. The pleasure faded quickly, and Theo brought back the low-level pain in the man’s arms. Simple reward for cooperation and punishment for being an asshole could go a long way.

“I called them, they said they’re on their way.” Nolan muttered, coming back around the corner. Theo grinned at him briefly and then turned back to Rossler. He upped the pain, watching as the man’s muscles tensed.

“Where is Monroe?”

“Fuck you.” He upped the agony, ignoring the tortured screams for a few seconds before dialing it back down.

“Where is Monroe?” Rossler panted, head lolling, before he glared up at Theo through his bangs.

“Even if I knew, I wouldn’t tell-“ Theo cut off his sentence with another round of the extreme pain.

“All you have to do to feel good is tell me what I want. I’ll stop the pain and bring back the bliss.” The other two hunters began stirring, so he decided to give Rossler a short break. Theo sent waves of pleasure rolling through the other two. They moaned, conflicted, and Rossler’s eyes bugged out.

“Do either of you want to tell me where Monroe is hiding? Or where she headed last? Or give me a list of their contacts?” he tilted their heads so they couldn’t look away from him and sent their dopamine receptors wild. “You know you want to tell me.”

“Fuck you, monster! We’ll never tell you anything!” Theo diverted some of his attention to torturing Rossler again. He would never get tired of hearing this asshole scream, but he was running out of time. Keeping Rossler screaming, he looked back at the two hunters he was flooding with endorphins.

“Come on, boys, give me anything useful and I’ll both reward you, and let you go.”

Sirens pricked at his ears, barely close enough to hear but quickly coming closer.

Sighing, Theo realized he wasn’t going to get anything out of the hunters. Deciding to take his digs where he could get them, he sent waves of agony rolling through the trio, compounding it with the illusion of fire licking at them from below. He envisioned the heat, the crackle of their skin as it popped and sizzled and peeled away from their bones.

He let go of the illusion as the first of the police cars screamed to a halt in front of Nolan’s house. He moved over to the kid and sat down next to him. Nolan stared at him, dumbstruck, but not obviously afraid. Wary. Not afraid.

Theo raised an eyebrow in surprise.

The boy had just watched him torture these three hunters without touching them. Undoubtedly it was confusing watching them just scream for no reason, but for some reason Nolan smelled more intrigued than anything.

“Thank you, for saving me.” Nolan said softly as the police officers burst through the open front door, guns drawn. They all returned their firearms when they saw Theo and Nolan sitting calmly on the couch, the three hunters tied up. Sheriff Stilinski strode in last, eyes locking on Theo’s immediately. His expression twitched, as though he wasn’t sure how to feel, but then it slid into a professional mask as he approached Nolan.

“Do you need to go to the hospital?” The boy shook his head.

“They beat me up a little, but it was just a couple hits. Theo arrived almost immediately, so they didn’t get much time to do anything.” The Sheriff cocked an eyebrow at Theo, silently gesturing for an explanation.

“ _Mason_ ,” he iterated with particular emphasis on the boy’s name to tell the Sheriff that psychic powers were involved, “Told me he thought Nolan was acting suspicious all day. I followed him around after school, tagged the hunter’s vehicle and decided to stick around in case they tried anything. As soon as Nolan’s parents left, they did.”

He took statements from both of them, but otherwise had no need for either of them. The police carted off the hunters shortly afterward, Rossler glaring at him in equal parts hatred and fear. Theo tossed an auditory illusion after the man as he was being led away.

“You’d better tell the cops anything they want to know. If you don’t, I’ll make sure to crash your transfer to prison, and we’ll see if I’m feeling generous enough then to let you make it.”

“How did you do that?” Theo almost jumped at Nolan’s question, quickly deciding the boy couldn’t have heard his threat to Rossler and instead was asking about how he dealt with the hunters.

“I learned some new tricks,” he stated simply, and certainly infuriatingly. “You good here? I want to go home.” Nolan hesitated, but nodded.

“Yeah, I’ll…I’ll be okay here. My parents will be home soon enough anyway.” Theo growled to himself. He was getting soft. He could hear the pain and fear in the boy’s voice, and smell it in his scent. Sure, the kid would be ‘okay’ being left alone. But it was abundantly clear that he would rather not, and that leaving him alone would be sure to result in more paranoia and fear and trauma.

He sighed.

“Yeah, that was real confidence inspiring. Fine, go do…something. I’m gonna clean up down here.” He turned away to ignore the human after a few seconds of staring. With a thought the three chairs were returned to the dining table. A few things had been knocked off the walls and book cases, but nothing was broken and everything was easily returned. “Huh. I expected that to take longer.”

Turning around, he raised an expectant eyebrow at the human still staring at him. Nolan’s scent had faded to almost nothing. Theo sighed, figuring the poor kid had finally gone into shock as he tried to process almost getting killed by his former colleagues and then saved by his former victim.

Theo moved toward the boy slowly. There was an opportunity here. Nolan may not have been one of Monroe’s lieutenants, but he had worked for and with her. He knew the hunters they hadn’t caught yet. He probably knew some back stories, information they could use to hunt down the rest of her followers.

“Hey, Nolan,” eyes flickered to his at the name, “Why don’t you sit? You’re probably going into shock from everything. It would be better if you didn’t fall over.” Theo kept his hands clearly visible; it was a pretty useless action, but he doubted Nolan was thinking about his psychic powers right now. Surprisingly the boy let him close enough to settle a hand on his shoulder. Theo guided him out of the entry hall and into the living room and onto the family’s couch.

“I’m gonna get you something to drink. Anything in particular that you want?” His voice was gentle, like he was talking to a scared child. Which, when he thought about it, he was. When Nolan just shook his head, Theo returned to his feet and made short work of digging through the kitchen. Thankfully the kitchen was intuitively laid out and he found a glass quickly. Orange juice went in and then he returned, finding Nolan exactly as he’d left him.

Theo handed the kid the glass, but kept an eye on it; he fully expected Nolan to drop it within the next few minutes. “Drink.” He commanded gently, gratified when he was obeyed. Nolan chugged half the glass before clearing his throat and blinking. His eyes were a little more aware when they reopened, and he turned to find Theo.

“You saved me.” Theo just shrugged. It was definitely the time for false modesty. Nolan would expect it, and would probably try to compensate for it by swinging further into gratitude. “After everything I did to you guys…Why? Why would you put yourself at risk like that?” Theo shrugged again, put on a twisted, self-deprecating smile. Let Nolan think that his reaction was instinctive, like Theo never had any choice _but_ to save him. After a few contrived seconds of silence, Theo answered, voice soft and reflective.

“I…I guess I know what it’s like.” Nolan’s eyes flicked up to his face and back down to his juice. “To be so afraid that I’d do anything to survive. Even horrible things. No one saved me when my reckoning came.” He let the _‘I couldn’t let that happen to someone else_ ’ go unsaid. Nolan would fill in the blanks, undoubtedly informed of at least the bare bones of Theo’s past by Monroe.

“Thank you.” The words were quiet, swallowed up behind orange juice a second later, but Theo quirked his lips up in an appropriately embarrassed, accepting smile.

“I’d do it again in a heartbeat.” Now it was Nolan’s turn to be embarrassed, so the boy looked away. It gave Theo room to figure out how to get the ex-hunter involved with the pack, to get him to Argent so the older man could subtly wring him for information, under the guise of protecting and training him. “Why don’t you come to the pack meeting tomorrow evening?” He offered. It would be perfect!

Nolan startled at the sudden offer, almost dropping the remaining juice. He looked up with wide eyes and was about to start offering stammering refusals, so Theo cut him off.

“Argent will wanna make sure you’re alright, and probably see if you can offer any small details that could give us hints about the hunters’ pasts. Any information could help us stop them. And I’m betting that after the Sheriff tells Scott about tonight, he’ll want to confirm for himself that you’re safe and unhurt. He’s gonna feel bad for not thinking they would go after you.” Just as he predicted, Nolan started offering reasons Scott shouldn’t feel bad. Theo just let him ramble.

“Scott’s too nice for his own good.” Theo cut in as Nolan took a breath. “Just let him see for himself that you’re fine. It’ll be the easiest way to get him over the guilt.” Nolan, who undoubtedly felt the need to do anything to make up for his past actions, nodded quickly.

The next evening found Chris Argent talking quietly to Nolan in the kitchen after the boy showed up to the pack meeting.

“Why’d you bring Nolan to the pack meeting?” Liam asked him quietly. His voice was a little bitter, like he was trying and failing not to hate the sophomore.

“He probably knows things about Monroe’s guys. I figured we could use him, even if just a little bit. Plus, it can’t hurt to have him feel like he owes us. One more ally.” Theo shrugged, cocky grin in place as he turned to Liam. The boy was looking at him with a considering gaze, and Theo couldn’t help feel a little bit judged. “What?” Liam blinked and shook his head.

“Sorry, I was thinking…Everyone else tries to _not_ think about your past, the stuff you did to us.” Theo just lifted an eyebrow, while Liam’s curled down in thought. “But…maybe we should stop? You’re brilliant, and manipulative. You had backup plans for backup plans, and you played every single one of us like a one-man band.” Liam’s tone was matter of fact, and there wasn’t an ounce of judgment behind it. Theo couldn’t help the sudden flush of heat in his gut.

It was relief.

He was feeling relieved that Liam could talk about all of this with a straight face, and without hating him.

Huh.

“So like…” Liam continued, oblivious to Theo’s inner revelation, “How would you stop Monroe? Like, the Theo with nothing to lose and everything to gain? How would he fight someone like Monroe?” The wolf looked up, eyes questing, challenging. Theo blinked at him, thrown off by the trust in Liam’s eyes.

He had known that Liam trusted him. He knew it from the way the beta listened to him, and spent most of his time with him. He knew it, and he had even lectured Scott about it, because Liam’s trust was exactly how he had hurt them last time.

It was one thing to know Liam trusted him, and another to have that trust hurled in his face like a spear.

Maybe it was so profound because he, like the rest of them, was trying to block out the past. He thought Liam’s trust came from thinking he was somehow different than the Theo from before. Then to have Liam casually asking about his previous atrocities, and go so far as to suggest that he use the skills he’d learned under the Doctors…

“Hey,” Liam snapped in front of his face, bringing him abruptly out of the maelstrom of feelings he had become. “You alright?” He shook his head to clear it, and smirked.

“Yeah, just thinking. You’re right. We’ve all been putting that behind us, and I think we shouldn’t.” Liam raised an eyebrow, goading him to continue. Theo grinned, happy.

He was happy. No, he was _ecstatic_ , because of Liam. Because Liam was fully in his camp, and trusted him. He had told Liam the other day that the boy knew exactly who he was, but those words hadn’t really registered even as he said them.

But they were _absolutely_ true.

Liam did know him, and Theo couldn’t help being overjoyed that the werewolf trusted him in spite of everything.

“How much practice reading minds do you think Mason has gotten?” Liam’s eyes widened as he caught on. Both boys turned to move further into Scott’s house. Liam led the way, more familiar with the little things about Mason that would lead them to him.

The human met them as they turned a corner to the living room.

“I could hear you thinking about me.” He cocked an eyebrow and tilted his head at Theo. “Not a whole lot, but Corey’s been letting me practice digging deeper than the surface. I’m not good, but I can get into some memories that he’s not actively projecting if I’ve got a minute of focus. Why?”

“Because Liam reminded me that I’m not a nice person.” Mason just blinked at his statement. “How do you feel about playing interrogator to someone who can take us to Monroe?”

By now they had drawn the attention of the rest of the pack. Scott’s brow was crinkled in confusion, and Argent and Nolan were coming in from the kitchen. Derek looked as stoic as always, giving away nothing. The Sheriff paused in his chat with Malia when he realized everyone else was looking elsewhere, turning until his eyes locked on Theo as the center of everyone else’s focus.

“Theo, you don’t-“ Theo held up a finger, not looking away from Mason, to forestall Scott.

“Shush, Scott. The psychics are talking.”

“I guess…I mean, yeah, I could totally dig around in Rossler’s head!” Mason started off hesitant, but as he thought about it for more than a second he quickly grew more confident. His voice was excited by the end. “Dude! Theo! You’re a genius! Why did none of us think about that?” Theo just shrugged, the answer obvious.

“Because you’re all too nice to think about forcing information out of someone via less than moral means.” The words brought Mason’s joy down a notch, but he shrugged and accepted the statement as truth.

“Now hold on a minute,” The Sheriff broke in, standing and making his way toward them. “We’re not going to torture Rossler for information. I know we don’t have a lot of leads, but there are some things-“

“We’re not gonna torture him, Sheriff.” Theo interrupted.

“Not like that worked anyway.” Mason muttered, just low enough that the humans might not have heard. Theo ignored him.

“We won’t even need to talk to him. Mason can read his mind from outside the station; he’s been working with Corey on digging deeper than surface thoughts.” Mason took over and explained with more detail what his mind reading entailed, which would probably help make the idea seem less inherently evil.

Just because Liam was on board with using his more unsavory ideas didn’t mean the rest of the pack thought well of him.

“I don’t like the thought that you can just go digging around in people’s minds…” The man trailed off unhappily. A burst of anger drifted through the air, and Theo realized it was coming from Liam. He reached out and set a hand on Liam’s shoulder, pausing the words that were undoubtedly about to jump out of his mouth.

“So then don’t like it, Sheriff. Turn a blind eye, and let us do something that will actually help protect everyone.” The man grew visibly incensed at Theo’s words, but Theo had already turned back to Mason. “You wanna go right now? I’ll take you.” He was counting on the Sheriff being torn between his morals and his desire to keep the town safe. He was actually surprised Argent didn’t offer any arguments, but then figured he shouldn’t be. The man was as mercenary as Theo himself was.

Mason nodded his head.

“Yeah, lemme grab a jacket and we’ll go.”

“Guys…”

“Take care of Nolan, Scott. Leave this to us.” Liam said roughly, communicating clearly that he didn’t want his alpha’s opinion before turning away to grab his own jacket. Corey scrambled for his too, running right through the couch when it was in his way. He knew the other chimera had been practicing his abilities as well, but it was startling since Theo had yet to actually see Corey phase through anything. The four of them paused briefly at the door once they had their things.

“Are you really comfortable letting them go take information from a man’s unwilling mind?” He overheard the Sheriff ask as they began filing out the door. Probably either to Scott or Argent, but it was Argent who answered.

“I would be willing to torture the information out of Rossler myself, Sheriff. If they think they can get that information without resorting to provably illegal means, then yes. I am all for it. Am I thrilled that they have the ability?” Theo kept listening as the door shut behind them. “No. But as Liam made very obvious a while ago, none of us can do anything about it at this point. Could we have done something about Theo at the very beginning? Sure. But Mason? Corey? Liam himself? None of us would have ever even considered doing something to preempt them becoming more powerful.”

Theo didn’t bother to hide his smirk as he closed the door to his truck, sitting behind the wheel. Liam lifted an eyebrow, but Mason beat him to the punch.

“Theo, stop gloating. It’s not attractive no matter what Liam thinks.” Liam spluttered in offense, but Theo couldn’t help his smirk morphing into a bright grin as he laughed.

“Mason, what the hell?! Why would you even say that!?” Theo curved his grin back into a smirk.

“Come on, Liam, don’t deny that you find me unbearably attractive.” The idea didn’t cause his heart – Tara’s heart – to give an extra thump. There was not flush to his face as he mocked the other boy. Liam just growled, his face bright red, and flipped him off.

“Fuck you.” He turned to face the back seat. “Fuck you too, I hate you. You’re dead to me, Corey’s my new best friend and we’re leaving you both for Mexico.”

The trip to the police station was quick, and they spent most of it making fun at Liam’s expense. Theo killed the engine and turned, letting the smile drop from his face to convey the levity of the situation.

“Mason, are you ready? This whole plan is gonna rely on you. We’re just kind of here…because.” Mason nodded, so Theo continued. “We’ll jump up onto the roof – Liam, you help Mason since you’re the strongest – and then we’ll just wait. Liam, Corey and I will make sure no one bothers you, but once we’re up on the roof it’s all you.”

“All me. Got it. I can do this. I can do this! I’m a vital part of this plan, and I’m gonna do it!” Theo let his lips quiver, hiding his grin just enough that it was obvious he was failing to hide it. Mason just flipped him off. “I’ve never been the main character in a plan before, let me have this!” Theo just gestured toward the station, letting him have it.

Mason charged ahead, and Theo had to hastily construct a flash in the periphery of a passerby’s vision as a distraction. It would be just their luck for their cover to be blown before they even started.

“Mason. Use your telepathy to make sure no one is watching us. We still need secrecy to get on the roof.” Mason flushed as he read what Theo had done from his mind. The human nodded, and Theo smelled him grow more focused.

No more mishaps were had, and soon enough the four of them were sitting quietly on the roof of the police station.

“I’ve found Rossler.” Mason announced softly, his eyes closed in concentration. “I’m gonna start looking for Monroe in his memories, sift through them to the newest ones in the hopes of finding her most recent location.

The other three boys nodded, then turned to sit and wait.

It was boring, keeping watch from the roof. They had to stay far enough back that no one in the parking lot or going out for a smoke break could see them. Most of their ‘watching’ was actually listening, tracking the officers inside as they moved around and noting any time anyone approached an entrance to the station. It was easy enough to hear that no one inside suspected their presence.

After the first minute Theo was really just eavesdropping.

‘How’s Laura doing? She feeling better?’

‘Oh yeah, much. Doctor said it was just a really bad cold. But with everything that happens in this town you can never be too sure!’

‘Did you watch the game last night?’

‘Think Stilinski will get anything out of these guys?’

‘They’re connected to that crazy bitch that besieged the station a few weeks ago, right?’

Theo rolled his eyes at all the mundane or asinine conversations happening below them. He turned to look at Mason, suppressing a flinch. There was blood leaking from the human’s nose. Just a drop or two, but enough to be noticeable. Mason’s face twitched every now and then, while his eyes moved back and forth. The blood drip was steady, but light. No more than a drop every ten seconds or so.

He would stop this if it got worse.

Blood dripping from their noses, Theo had learned, was a sign of using their powers beyond their current level. In hindsight, he likely had his increased healing factor to thank for his lack of nosebleeds. The only time he had actually bled from mental exertion was when he tried combining his telekinesis with an illusion to try fooling Liam into believing Derek was pissed off at him.

The beta had first rebuffed the Derek illusion, which told him that it _was_ an illusion. Theo could never predict how Liam would use his powers, so he was never able to make his illusions react the right way. Once Liam knew he was in an illusion it was no fun, so Theo would dismiss them. Or else Liam would throw him across the room to break his focus.

Finally, after several minutes, Mason came back to them. His face scrunched up, and he sneezed, blowing blood everywhere.

“Oh god, that’s gross. Shit, I was bleeding! What, why?!” Liam was at his side in a heartbeat, offering his friend a tissue.

“It happens when we use too much of our power. You must have stressed yourself searching Rossler’s mind. Did you learn anything?” Mason looked up at Theo.

“I learned that, after the Anuk-ite, Rossler is terrified of spiders.”

“Valid.” Theo responded with a smirk. Mason grinned slightly, so he considered the interaction a win. The human continued.

“Otherwise, not a lot. He doesn’t know where Monroe is. They’ve got a rendezvous point, where he is supposed to receive their next location, but she never sticks around one place for more than three days. Their last location was in Redding, and that was two days ago. They’d already been there for two, so they’re long gone by now.”

“What’s the drop location? Can we go and get it to learn where she’ll be?” Mason and Theo both grimaced at Liam’s question. Theo figured Monroe wouldn’t be dumb enough to trust her location to paper, so it would be another of her hunters lagging behind to meet up with Rossler.

Mason confirmed as much, causing Liam’s shoulders to drop.

“So what now?” Corey asked, hand grabbing Mason’s shoulder in both comfort and support. Theo closed his eyes and thought for a moment.

An idea immediately popped into his head, but he traced its paths through several iterations before liking one and opening his eyes with a smirk.

“I’ve got an idea.”


	3. Chapter 3

Corey inhaled, held it for a few seconds, then exhaled. He nodded to the Sheriff, and then to Theo. Argent nodded at him and held up the display, showing them all that the tracker was live. Mason pulled him into a tight hug, and Corey didn’t want to let go. This plan scared the shit out of him, mostly because he was crucial to its success.

Theo was as well, but mostly him.

The Sheriff turned and made his way into the station, so Corey also made his departure. With one last kiss to Mason, he turned toward the prison transport vehicle. Phasing through the locked back doors, he focused on disappearing and then sat in the space between the wall and bench.

Okay. He was in place. Now it was Theo’s turn to kick this plan off right. It would only take a few minutes – maybe ten or fifteen – before Rossler was led into the back of the van. Theo, disguised as an officer, would ride in the back with him.

Sure enough, Theo – looking like himself to Corey, but obviously looking like someone else to Rossler – led the prisoner into the van and cuffed him to the bench before taking his own seat on the other side. Theo didn’t look at him. It reaffirmed what a good actor he was; Corey wasn’t sure he’d be able to resist confirming that everyone was in place.

Of course, Theo could probably hear his heart beating. He wouldn’t need to wonder if Corey was in place.

As the transport started moving, Rossler tried asking a few questions. Theo remained stoic and silent. Corey wondered if it was because he wasn’t confident enough to mimic voices, or if the role of officer guard was a silent one. Or maybe the illusion he was projecting _was_ answering!

Regardless, their plan hit part two half an hour down the road.

The transport slowed to a stop, and Rossler looked around. Theo got up silently, and Corey knew Rossler was fully convinced of his illusion. When Theo’s back was turned the man smirked, and it turned into an outright grin when Theo threw open the back of the transport and ran around the side.

He must have been making Rossler see and hear one of his buddies coming to rescue him. Theo had said he would use Preston. He was conveniently the hunter they all knew best – aside from Monroe and Rossler himself – and also Rossler’s usual partner. According to Mason’s analysis of Rossler’s mind, Preston would be the most likely to rescue him, and they had a series of code words that would confirm each other’s identities.

They weren’t sure what powers various supernatural creatures could have, but they knew shapeshifting was well within the bounds of reality.

As they predicted, Rossler was out of his handcuffs as soon as Theo was around the corner and out of sight. The man flinched, probably hearing gun shots, before grinning and leaping down from the van. Corey cautiously lifted himself to his feet and then stuck his invisible face through the wall of the transport, watching Rossler interact with Theo happily.

“Man, am I glad to see your mug!” There was the first code word. “Great job taking out all these backwoods fuckers,” Corey nodded to himself at the second, “let’s get the fritz out of here.” And there was the third. Theo stared at Rossler for a few seconds before Rossler said, “Man, you’re no fun. Just reciting our code words is so lame! And anyone who cares to listen is gonna know ‘em!” Rossler shook his head in amusement. “I’ll go rendezvous with Gibbs. I’ll see you after you’re done in Yreka.” Theo waited a beat before turning and walking toward his truck. Rossler looked around him, then went over and kicked a space in the air. Corey watched Theo watching, and the other chimera must have predicted Rossler would do something like that. The man kicked the air several times, probably feeling like he was kicking some police officer or other.

Corey wondered who Theo was showing him.

“Animal scum.” Rossler muttered before finally making his back to the transport. He shut the back door, closing Corey in the darkness broken only by the back window, before Corey heard him open and close the front door. The hunter easily started the vehicle, so Corey sat down on the bench, clicking the seatbelt around himself for safety. He relaxed, allowing his invisibility to fade.

He would doubtless need to conserve his stamina for following Rossler around.

The drive was boring. An hour of nothing, Corey not daring to use his phone for more than the Maps app that told him where they were. He had a GPS tracker in his shoe, and Life360 active on his phone. Chris should be able to find him wherever Rossler unwittingly took him.

The transport finally turned onto a crunchy area and then slowed to a halt, Rossler killing the engine and getting out. Returning to invisibility, Corey phased through the wall of the transport and winced, holding himself still.

The ground was loose gravel.

Any step he took would reveal him to the hunters, who clearly remembered that he could turn invisible. Corey released a slow breath and focused. He could do this. Liam had shown them how to fly a few days prior. Corey hadn’t been much good at it, but he knew that he could at least get off the ground.

The easiest way would be to pick himself up by his pants.

Creating the mental image, Corey reached out and grabbed himself, hoisting his pants – and body with them – into the air. He kept himself low, hovering just a few feet above the ground as he propelled himself toward the hunters.

“Glad to see you alive, Gibbs.” The other man clasped Rossler’s arm before turning back toward the SUV without another word. “I got worried when you didn’t show yesterday.” Corey hastened his flight, stopping himself around the back of the SUV as the two hunters got into the front seats and closed the doors.

“I got caught by the mutts. One was watching Nolan’s place, and man. That place has really gotten interesting.”

Corey let his feet settle on the bumper of the car, releasing his flight and relaxing for just a moment. Quickly pumping himself up, he phased through the back of the car, careful to phase through anything in the back until he could settle on the empty seat on the passenger side. This ride would need to be endured without a seat belt.

“Theo, the chimera that betrayed them, went to hell or something, and then came back on their side?” The new guy nodded in recognition. “He’s got some wild new powers. He’s telekinetic, for one. Disarmed me and the others without even moving. Got us all trussed up like turkeys. Then, get this. The guy can make you believe shit.” The man quirked an eyebrow as he started the car, pulling out of the parking lot.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, he lit me on fire. He made scarabs burrow under my arms.” Corey repressed a swallow at the imagery, focusing on keeping his breathing shallow and silent. “He caused phantom, general pain and pleasure to try and get us to talk. None of it was real, but man.” Rossler shook his head in disbelief. “It certainly felt real.”

“Did Brooks or Meyers make it? How’d you get out, by the way?” Rossler shook his head.

“I don’t know if they did. It was just me in the transport. Preston barricaded the road and took out the cops.”

“How’d he manage that? And wasn’t he on the way to LA?” Rossler shrugged.

“I was trapped in the back. By the time I got out he’d already killed all three of the guards.”

“Are you sure?”

What.

Rossler looked confused, but to Corey’s horror his eyes widened in realization.

Fuck.

“Do you think…?”

“You said the chimera could make you believe shit. What if the whole escape was a setup?”

“But Preston knew the words!” The other guy seemed to struggle to reconcile that, but in the end shook his head. Corey swore to himself.

“If he can put stuff into your mind, who’s sayin’ that he can’t take stuff out?” Rossler swore loudly. Corey’s eyes widened and he immediately made himself impermeable as the hunter pulled a gun from the glove box.

Rossler fired two shots into each seat in the back. Two of the bullet’s passed right through Corey’s gut.

“Jesus, Rossler! A little warning next time!”

“That freaky chameleon bitch could’ve been in the car with us!”

“He still could be! Pull over, we gotta search the car.” The man swore, but did as instructed. As soon as they were stopped, Corey phased through the door and leaped, lifting himself through the air and making his landing on the soft dirt silent. He landed a good twenty feet away from the duo and allowed himself slightly heavier breaths while the two hunters tore apart their car.

It took almost an hour, but finally the two declared their car Corey-free. Corey managed to calm himself in that time and got closer, so that getting back in the car would be easier when the time came. Rossler sighed heavily and settled against the side of the SUV.

“You think maybe they were hoping you’d take the police van the whole way?” Rossler shrugged.

“I don’t know, but we should call Monroe and ask her advice. I’m comfortable admitting that I’m not qualified to make decisions when my mind clearly can’t be trusted.” Corey felt a small thrill of angry satisfaction at that. It was small, but it was a victory. The victory would continue to grow, since they now believed Corey was nowhere to be found.

“Well, we’ve cleared the SUV. So at least we know he’s not here.”

“Do we, though? What if Theo never left? What if everything that’s happened to us in the last two hours has just been one big illusion? Didn’t you ever watch Rick and Morty? What if this is a simulation inside a simulation?!”

“Rossler. Man, you gotta chill a bit. I admit, this is sketch. We can’t know for sure, you’re right. But imagine the energy it must take to project an illusion this realistic for this long? That’s gotta be difficult for anyone, let alone a chimera that’s barely been out of hell a few months, and probably hasn’t even had these crazy new powers a few weeks. He certainly didn’t have them when we were still in Beacon Hills!” Rossler took a few more deep breaths and exhaled heavily.

“Okay. We call Monroe and ask for advice.”

They did, and Corey followed their exchange the whole time.

Monroe agreed that they couldn’t trust themselves, but that they were right to believe Theo couldn’t possibly support detailed illusions for hours on end. They were to rest the night in a secure location, then spilt up again. The new guy would leave, and Monroe would tell him where to go later. Another hunter would come to retrieve Rossler.

Corey swore to himself. He wasn’t going to be able to maintain his invisibility overnight. He was already getting tired. He was stressed out, and things weren’t going as smoothly as Theo had planned.

Which shouldn’t have been a surprise. None of their plans ever went off without a hitch. Even when Theo first came to town, his plans were foiled in the end. Grumbling silently, Corey banished the uncharitable thoughts. He would have time for them later.

He returned to the car, settling silently in the back seat, and shifted to accommodate himself when they took off. The hunters drove for another hour before finding a suitable motel. They pulled into the lot and left the car to get a room, giving Corey a minute to breathe on his own. He tensed up when they returned for their bags, but then phased through the door to follow them to their room.

Once he knew where they were staying, Corey retreated. Sticking his face through the wall of the room next door, he quickly established that it was empty and slid inside. Since the curtains were already drawn, Corey felt comfortable letting himself return to visibility. He took a few deep, slow breaths, forcing himself to remain calm despite the tension of the last few hours.

Then he took out his phone and called Argent.

“Corey. Are you safe?”

“Yeah,” Corey nodded. “They got a motel for the night, I’m in the empty room next to them.” He kept his voice low, aware of how thin the walls of this place were. He could easily hear Rossler and the other guy – Gibbs? – talking about random shit. “Chris, they suspect I was following them. Or that what Theo showed Rossler was fake. They know he can project illusions, and while it’s great watching Rossler freak out because he doesn’t know what’s real, it’s also a big problem.”

“That is a problem. Can you handle it? Or should I come get you now?” Corey inhaled and thought before responding.

This would probably be their best chance to find Monroe. If Corey bailed, they would need to wait for the next attack to find them again. Monroe and her followers could go anywhere in that time. How many more people would die until they were brought down? What if Corey’s following them was the turning point of the whole war?

“I’ll be okay.” He answered, voice as confident as he could make it.

“If you’re sure. We followed the tracker, we’re only about half an hour behind you. We’ll find somewhere to stay on the other side of town.” Corey gave a perfunctory ‘thanks’ before hanging up and immediately dialing Theo’s number.

“Corey. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” He relayed what had happened with the hunters.

“Good.” Theo declared, his voice obnoxiously pleased with the news Corey had thought would make him swear.

“Good?” Corey almost shouted. He dropped his voice at the last second, remembering who was next door. “Theo how is any of this good?!”

“It’s good, because we’re going to make them believe they were followed, but that we followed the other guy. I figured at least one of them would be smart enough to question how conveniently everything played out. We’re gonna attack this new guy, give him time to get a call out to Monroe, and absolutely nothing is going to go wrong with Rossler.”

Corey nodded to himself, agreeing with that plan. It sounded reasonable. Theo continued.

“Chances are the guy that meets Rossler tomorrow is going to come prepared to flush you out, and keep you out of the car. I’m imagining a dehumidifier with wolfsbane, or something. A low enough dose won’t bother them much, but it would keep you from following them.”

“I can ride on top of the car,” he stated confidently. He’d always wanted to do that, but never had the balls or the reason.

What better time than following a murderous cult of hunters?

“Remember that you can shield yourself from just about anything, if you end up getting thrown off.” Corey hummed a noncommittal affirmation. Theo let it go. “Keep yourself safe. Call me next time you get a chance.”

“Bye.” Corey hung up and let out a breath, forcing himself to relax.

It wasn’t that he hated Theo…

He had very mixed feelings. Like Liam, he had been party to Theo’s obvious change of heart after returning from Hell. He had also been party to the atrocities Theo committed before Hell. It was hard to reconcile the manipulative bastard with the helpful asshole he had become. Corey wanted to like him. He really did. He could see that Theo was different, and trying to make up for his past.

But nothing he did would bring Josh or Tracy back.

Closing his eyes and sucking in another deep breath, Corey forced his thoughts away from Theo.

Mason would know if Theo was planning to betray them again. There’s no way Theo could keep that hidden from Mason. His powers may be new, but Corey was confident his boyfriend would be able to sniff out treachery the second it occurred to the chimera. He trusted Mason. As long as Mason trusted Theo, he would too.

The evening passed uneventfully, Corey and the hunters both ordering delivery – Corey sure to do so well after them so that there was no chance of their deliveries intersecting – before settling down for the night. He woke briefly when the no-name hunter left early in the morning, sending off a text to Argent and Theo. They both confirmed a few minutes later that they were following him.

Half an hour later, another stranger stopped by Rossler’s room. It turned out to be the replacement hunter sent by Monroe, and within minutes they were on their way back out. Corey looked ahead and identified the only new car in the lot. He exerted some effort to jump, silencing his landing next to the car. Watching carefully, Corey waited for a moment neither man was looking at the car. As soon as their gazes were averted, he leaped on top of the car and settled his feet in the ski racks so he could lay flat.

Sure enough, the man pulled out a what looked like a glade air freshener, loaded up with a light purple fluid. He plugged it into the car and it immediately began misting, undoubtedly filling the car with a diluted wolfsbane.

“This should keep any spies out of the vehicle.” The man stated calmly.

“Who fucking knows anymore. These monsters are getting more and more powerful, who’s to say they won’t develop immunity to wolfsbane?”

“Then we’ll deal with it when that time comes. But to our knowledge that has not happened, and until it does this is the most effective tool we have.” Rossler grunted in response to the man’s gentle reasoning. Corey wondered how in the hell a man like this came to work with someone like Monroe. He was probably a straight up psychopath, able to murder babies with a smile and go on a date an hour later.

The drive wasn’t too terrible, especially once Corey projected a small shield in front of him to take the brunt of the wind. The shield protected him from the cold and the vacuum that came from moving at high speeds, so it was actually a reasonably comfortable ride. As comfortable as laying on the roof of a car could ever be.

After just over an hour, they pulled into the gravel lot of an abandoned warehouse in the middle of nowhere. Rossler and the calm guy left the car and made their way in, feet crunching the whole while. Corey hiked himself up by the pants again and floated after them, quickly growing tired from shielding himself for so long, hanging on to the car rack, and being invisible. He floated over to the grass that grew around the sides and back of the warehouse and allowed himself a break.

He could hear everything inside anyway.

Monroe was there, was the first obvious observation. Her voice – etched into his mind from the trauma associated with her monologues and threats – reached him through wood and metal as she chatted with another person.

“As soon as Garrison has evaluated Rossler, we’ll know if he is still under the influence of any of the chimera’s tricks.”

“Do we trust that Garrison will be able to perceive any differences in Rossler’s reality?” The unfamiliar voice asked. Monroe responded with her typical calm.

“We must. None of us know the extent of the chimera’s new abilities. None of us know the extent of Garrison’s, either, as he was the only one exposed to the device before it vanished.”

Corey’s blood ran cold at the words. Maybe he was projecting, or making incorrect assumptions based on his own experiences. It could be that, right? It had to be. If not…

Monroe had a telepath like Mason.

Would he be as strong as Mason? Would he be as sensitive? Or would his powers be different? Even though Theo and Liam also had telekinesis, all three of their abilities were different. There was no reason two telepaths would have the same strengths, right? Maybe this guy could only do deep scans, or could only read minds while focusing.

But what if his progression had been just like Mason’s? Then he would hear Corey’s thoughts from anywhere in the building. He would already know he was there.

For safety, Corey forced his mind into silence, banning words from forming.

It was just like being quiet in real life, but he had to stifle his thoughts instead of his feet.

He had to get in there. If they had a telepath, then this mission was already a bust. Frantically pulling out his phone he texted Theo.

_Telepath. Going in._

He knew Theo would yell at him for being reckless, but they wouldn’t have any more chances if Monroe had found a telepath on Mason’s level.

Focusing, Corey stalked slowly through the wall, eyes on the lookout for anyone that could hear his steps. He took slow, deep breaths, maintaining his invisibility while sneaking around. He phased through any obstacles instead of going around them, willing to expend the energy in exchange for needing to be quiet over shorter distances.

Finally he peered into the room in which Monroe waited.

The vile woman was bent over a table, peering down at something with two other hunters. One was probably the man with whom she’d talked about the telepath, the two talking about their next destination. Corey listened only intently enough to hear their intent to meet up with Preston in Yreka.

Breathing, Corey turned his attention to hiding from the telepath.

Mason did his best to tune out all of the ambient thoughts. He had described them as hearing voices, and when his powers first manifested his boyfriend hadn’t been able to distinguish between thoughts said out loud versus those kept inside.

Deciding then that the psycho hunter from the car had the right of it, Corey made his decision. He had to do what he could with what he knew. He had to assume that Garrison would be the same as Mason, because if he wasn’t there was no way for Corey to predict what he could do. Which meant that Garrison would only hear his thoughts as part of the mental ambience when he got in range.

“He’ll be here in fifteen minutes.”

Corey silently acknowledged the information, conveniently said loud enough for him to catch without trying.

Fifteen minutes meant he was likely at least a mile out, and so far Mason’s ambient range was only a mile. He could seek out particular minds up to five miles away, but Corey wasn’t worried about this guy seeking his thoughts out unless he found them in the ambience.

Resolved to stay invisible on both the physical and mental planes, Corey slowly dropped to his knees, out of sight of the other hunters just to be safe, and worked on calming his mind.

Meditation had been one of Theo’s recommendations for Mason, but Corey had always done the exercises with his boyfriend when he got too overwhelmed. Mason said having Corey work through them at the same time gave him a focus point. So he drew a deep, slow breath in, and silently let it out just as slowly.

He repeated that, focusing on relaxing his muscles.

He did it again.

And again.

And again.

As he focused on breathing and relaxing, his thoughts smoothed out into a still lake. Nothing passed through his mind except his soft breathing.

The door slamming open nearly broke his concentration, but he forced himself to remain still. Careful to keep his thoughts blank and quiet, Corey opened his eyes.

Around the pillar, he could see Rossler stomp through the room and slam his hands on the table around which the other hunters were gathered.

“Where the fuck is this freak, Monroe? I wanna get my head cleared so we can get the fuck out of this dump!”

“He’s almost here, less than five minutes away by his measure.”

Inhale. Exhale. There is only what is happening in front of you.

“That fuckin’ chimera bitch. I don’t even know if I’m out of the prison!”

“Rossler, do you really think he is powerful enough to make you see all of this? A building you are familiar with, people you know that he undoubtedly does not? How long has it been?”

“We don’t know anything, Monroe!” Rossler screamed, his voice frantic.

Inhale. Exhale. Don’t laugh.

“We don’t know what he’s capable of! I wouldn’t have thought he could make me feel like I was burning alive either, but that was the first thing he did!”

“Rossler-“

“The kid fucked with my head, Monroe! I-“

“Rossler!” The man finally snapped his jaw shut, taking in a deep breath to calm himself. Corey couldn’t help the surge of vicious satisfaction that welled up in him.

Inhale. Exhale.

“He’ll be here soon. He can look through your mind, tell us definitively what was and wasn’t real, and then we can continue on with the plan. Until then, rest assured that McCall’s pack took our diversion. Gibbs was confronted half an hour ago. He called as the pack was converging on his location.”

“Fuck. What happened to him?”

“I’m not sure. He never reported back in.” Monroe’s voice sounded regretful, but firm. “We can only assume they took him in, or he died attacking them.”

Several minutes passed while the hunters talked, reiterating plans and ideas. Finally, the door slid open again and three men walked in.

Corey took in a measured breath, exhaling slowly, tracking the men, keeping his thoughts quiet.

One of them stopped walking, looking around. Corey slowly rose to his feet, his stomach curdling.

The man knew something was wrong. He carefully kept his thoughts void of words, acknowledging his thoughts without letting them develop.

He was the telepath.

The man’s eyes were roving over every gathered person, undoubtedly tagging their thoughts amid the ambient mental noise. Undoubtedly looking for the thoughts that didn’t belong. His gaze slid over Corey, and his brow wrinkled, but he kept scanning.

Fuck, he was going to have to stop the telepath from announcing his presence.

“Garrison? What is it?”

The man opened his mouth to respond to Monroe’s sharp question.

Fuck.

Corey reached out with his mind, imagining his fist closing on the man’s throat.

Garrison’s eyes immediately bugged out, hands clutching his throat.

Shit, there was no way Corey could keep this up. But if he relented, the hunters would find him.

“Shit, one of them must be here!”

“It’s the chameleon! He must be on Garrison!”

Several hunters ran forward. Their idea to wrangle Corey from where he must be strangling the telepath was admittedly good, if futile.

Shit, they were going to know he had telekinesis too.

He had to kill Garrison quickly.

He thought about cutting the man’s throat, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

He hadn’t killed anyone before.

He didn’t want to kill anyone.

He had to.

The hunters got to where Garrison was standing, batting around him in their attempts to knock Corey off.

Fuck.

Diverting his attention from the man’s throat, Corey imagined a fist reaching into his chest. Listening for the man’s rapidly pounding heart, he squeezed.

It was easier than flying.

Garrison spasmed, then his eyes rolled back into his head. The man struggled for a few seconds, then his legs gave out and he tumbled to the floor. The hunters trying to save him from Corey weren’t prepared, and he knocked one of them over when he fell on them.

Fuck.

Okay. Okay. He could do this. That was easy. Just don’t think.

Corey turned to Monroe, where the woman was staring at Garrison. She stared for just a second before scrambling to grab things from the table.

“Everybody run.” She commanded.

Fuck. Fuck, he had to kill them all.

Corey squeezed his eyes tightly, reaching out and slamming the only door shut. he threw the heavy bar home, and then strained himself to bend it.

It bent, enough to seal the room.

“Fuck!” One of the hunters screamed as he crashed into the door, struggling his hardest to wrench it open.

Corey felt warm liquid dribble down his lip.

He wasn’t done. Fuck. Heart pounding in his chest, he turned his attention back to Monroe. Her face had gone blank, and she pulled out her gun and was scanning the room.

Corey reached out and crushed her heart.

As her eyes bugged out and then rolled back, her hands scrambling for purchase on the table before giving out as she fell limp, he couldn’t help the vicious glee in his heart.

It meshed snugly with the gutwrenching pain.

He bit back a sob and turned his attention to the next hunter. He reached out, and just like with Monroe and Garrison, he crushed Rossler’s heart.

Another rush of sadistic joy. Another piece torn out of his heart.

He lifted his sleeve to keep his nose from dripping blood all over the ground; it would be a dead give-away when it became visible.

Again and again Corey reached out, killing hunter after hunter. After the fourth hunter dropped, the others took out their guns and began firing randomly. Corey just clenched his teeth and made himself become intangible. Several of the hunters wound up shooting each other, and Corey was sure to kill them as soon as they fell screaming.

Less than thirty seconds after he killed Garrison, Corey was the only living person in the room. He allowed his invisibility to fade, and let himself return to tangibility. His was the only heartbeat in the room. He had silenced the others.

He let the sob he’d been holding back burst from his throat.


	4. Chapter 4

“Everyone, I want to properly introduce Alec.” Scott gestured at the unfamiliar boy in his living room. Everyone had noticed him as soon as they arrived, but Scott had warned everyone off trying to talk to him all at once. Liam, when he was first made aware of the other boy, thought about ignoring his alpha. Alec had a strong scent of fear and confusion surrounding him like a shield though, so Liam nodded and kept himself back, a small smile and a wave the extent of their interaction.

The poor guy had been shifting back and forth the entire time everyone gathered in the living room. Every time he would calm himself, a new person would shift, or arrive, and claws and fur would erupt from his skin as his heart ratcheted up to eleven.

Instead of everyone verbalizing their hello’s, most of them just nodded or waved at the newcomer. Scott went on to explain Alec’s presence. Preston and Monroe’s remaining lackeys had attacked a pack down closer to LA. When they killed the alpha, one of the remaining betas received the power and it drove him mad. The new alpha bit Alec in a frenzy before being taken down by Preston. Alec, a terrified and wounded human, had been seconds from being shot in the head when Chris, Scott and the Yreka pack showed up. Luckily for him they handled Preston and his friends, and then the Yreka alpha, Shohreh, convinced the guy to go home with Scott.

It turned out that Alec was barely older than Liam. He would fit in perfectly with their little puppy pack.

Fuck, he hated himself for calling them that.

He let his eyes run over the other members of his pack though, the Puppy Pack of Beacon Hills. Nolan stared wide-eyed at Alec, probably battling a whole host of feelings about a new, clearly-out-of-control werewolf. Theo was near the kitchen, holding up the wall with a drink in his hand and being anti-social. Mason and Corey were joined at the hip – as usual – on the couch closest to Scott and Alec.

Liam was really proud of Corey for being there.

His friend was struggling with his part in ending the fight with Monroe, and he’d spent two whole days locked in his room with no one but Mason allowed in. He understood, a little. Corey had never wanted to kill anyone, but in order to keep everyone safe he’d had to slaughter a bunch of practically defenseless people.

Those people would have killed him at the first chance they got, but it was a small consolation at best.

Liam had never killed anyone, and he would be grateful if he managed to keep that a fact of his life until he died. He had come close a couple times, and the guilt of _almost_ killing someone tore him apart every time. He couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to be forced to kill a bunch of people.

He had asked his dad to work with Dr. Deaton to find a qualified therapist for Corey to talk to about the ordeal. The vet was too cryptic and all about The BalanceTM, and his sister was about as psychotic as Monroe despite ‘being on their side.’ The school had yet to find a new guidance counselor, but they were always barely trained and certainly not qualified to handle something as sensitive as a forced massacre.

“Why don’t you have Theo work with Alec on controlling his senses and the shift a little, Scott?” Mason’s voice broke through the idle chitchat the pack had started up after the minor introduction. Liam had zoned out, but he refocused at his friend’s words. Alec looked like he would bolt any second.

“That’s not a bad idea, it’ll probably help reassure Alec that he’s not about to hurt anyone.” Scott turned and blinked at the new werewolf, nodding.

“I can help, I don’t want to bother-“

“Scott, I love you,” Liam interrupted his alpha, “but you suck at this kind of thing. Your idea of guidance is saying ‘focus on what makes you human’ or ‘the shift is caused by anger and fear, so don’t be afraid.’” Scott opened his mouth, looking vaguely affronted, but quickly closed it. He knew Liam was right. He turned away from his alpha and locked eyes with Theo, the chimera obviously already resigned to his fate since he was stepping away from the wall.

“What’s Theo gonna do? How come he’s so much better that you recommended him in particular?” Although the question was aimed at Mason, Theo responded.

“You’re welcome to come watch, if you want. Not like it’s a secret.” He then turned to the new werewolf. “C’mon, Alec. Let’s go into the backyard. It’ll be better outside.” He turned away without waiting for a response, opening the door with his hand and stepping out into the fading sunlight. Scott gave Alec a light push, signaling him toward the door and then following behind.

Curious, Liam too followed them. Argent and the Sheriff followed as well, although the two humans stopped just beyond the door and watched from afar while the rest of them ventured further into the yard. Theo directed Alec to sit on the grass, and then sat across from him just out of arms reach. Liam and Scott stopped a short distance away from them and settled next to one another to watch.

“Alright, Alec, the first thing I want you to do, is breathe. Just take a big breath in, hold it for a second, then let it out. Got it?” Alec nodded, and then did as instructed. “Second, stop trying to control the shift.” Alec’s eyes flared as they widened in panic, shooting up to Theo’s face to gauge how serious he was. “No, I’m not kidding. Stop trying. If you shift, you shift. It’s not gonna do anything. Just relax. Force your shoulders down.”

Liam could smell the doubt and intrigue coming off Scott in small waves. His alpha’s gaze was trained on the duo, and Liam could tell he was committing everything to memory. After a second, Alec forced his shoulders to relax and took another enormous breath that he let out in a gust.

“Good.” Alec’s eyes were still flared, and he still had claws, but he seemed to be listening well enough. “Now I want you to focus on something you can hear. Just one thing. Pick anything, and tell me about it.” After another few seconds of silence, Alec spoke for the first time since Liam arrived.

“Your heartbeat.” Liam caught the slightest uptick in the heart in question, but Theo seemed to suppress his instinctive reaction well enough that not even Scott noticed. If he hadn’t expected a reaction, he would have missed it too.

“Good.”

“Everyone’s heartbeats. I can hear Scott’s. Um…The guy next to him, I can hear his. They’re both louder than yours. I can hear the two men on the deck. And…five hearts inside the house.”

“Good. Now tell me something you can smell. Pick out a particular scent.” Alec closed his eyes and inhaled heavily through his nose. Liam noticed that his nails had receded, and his face was almost completely back to normal.

“Ms. McCall is making a pot roast. There are carrots and potatoes; the beef broth is different than the roast, and she’s got…Rosemary…thyme…um…orange juice…wait no, she must be drinking that. Or…someone is. Um…”

“Good job, Alec.” Theo complimented. “Open your eyes.” The other boy did, and gave Theo a soft smile. “Notice how you’re not shifted now?” Alec looked down in surprise, but nodded while staring at his claw-free hands. “The shift is tied to your emotions, and your heart rate. Things that get your heart going will trigger the shift more. If you ever need to keep the shift down, do what we just did. Breathe, and ground yourself. Find some stimuli to focus on, and describe them to yourself. Out loud is better, until you get more practiced.

“Until then, let’s go run.”

“Run?!” Claws poked through Alec’s fingers again, and he gritted his teeth against the change before he noticed Theo looking at him expectantly. He exhaled sharply and then sucked in a massive breath. As he let it out he muttered “Hearts. Birds in the trees. Car at the end of the road. Two people inside making out. Cologne. Grass. Dirty fur?”

“That would be any number of unwashed animals in the woods. Now come on! It’s crash-course werewolf hour. We’ll be back before the sun is all the way gone.” He then turned and loped toward the woods at the edge of the McCall’s property. Alec turned back toward Scott, who just waved him off, before running after Theo.

“Mason was right, he’s dealing with Alec’s change way better than I could have.” Liam just shrugged, instead of commenting on Scott’s correctness.

“The Dread Doctors didn’t really do any training with the other chimeras. They left everything except for the science up to Theo.” Scott’s scent turned acrid and blue at Liam’s words, and he turned to find a small frown on his alpha’s face.

“I didn’t…” Liam wasn’t quite sure what Scott decided not to say. He knew what it was like to remember something horrible about a person though. He felt it every time he looked at Scott; he remembered attacking him and trying to kill him.

He also remembered the talk he’d had with Theo a few days prior.

“Scott, I think your main problem with Theo is that you’re trying to forget about everything he did before we sent him to hell.”

“I don’t-!” Scott jumped at Liam’s words, but again he trailed off instead of completing his thought. Liam’s alpha now smelled of guilt and indecision. “I try to forget it, because everything I see tells me he’s changed. He’s so different than he was before.” Liam grimaced lightly. Scott’s hesitance around Theo made a lot of sense.

“He hasn’t changed, Scott.” Stunned eyes swiveled to stare at him in horrified shock. Liam just met them calmly. “What do you think is different about him?” It was almost like he had borrowed Mason’s powers; he was sure he knew what Scott would say before his alpha actually said the words.

“He’s…he’s not nice, but he’s helpful. He puts in so much effort to help everyone he can. He’s protective, and caring, and…well, still not kind, but understanding and patient. Before…with the Doctors, he was cocky, and competent. He was smooth and convincing. He had a lot of good reasons for us to trust him, and every act of good came with an explanation.” Liam just nodded, but spoke when Scott seemed to still not be getting the point.

“Why do you think the Theo you knew before was real?” Scott’s brows furrowed, but he didn’t answer. “Why do you think Theo did everything he did when he was with the Doctors? What were his motivations?” Liam gave Scott a minute to think.

“Power. That’s what he said, after he revealed himself as a traitor.” Liam shrugged.

“Why though? Why did he want power?” Scott remained silent, so Liam went on. “You remember his backstory? Killed his sister when he was ten? Taken by the Doctors? Do you remember how stupid you were at ten, Scott?” a quirked eyebrow and a slight smirk were his alpha’s only response. “What do you think living with the Doctors was like? Do you think he worked alongside them? Did they tuck him in at night when he had a nightmare about killing his sister?” Scott’s smirk fell and the sad scent returned.

“They were awful, weren’t they?” Liam just nodded. “They probably just reminded him the cost of failure at every little thing.” Liam nodded again. “He wanted power to protect himself. He tried to kill me because he wanted a pack.”

“Theo’s mind has been twisted and manipulated since he was a little kid, Scott. Every choice and desire was made with the understanding that ‘if at first you don’t succeed, you die.’” Scott nodded. “I think hell was more de-conditioning than anything else. And now that the persistent fear of failure is gone? Why would he wear that same mask?” Scott blinked at him.

“The Theo with the doctors _was_ just a mask, wasn’t he? So then…”

“It’s why I asked why you thought the Theo from before was real. The Theo I see? The one you’re always too on guard to notice? He’s just as manipulative as you fear, but just as protective and loyal as you hope.”

“How do you…” Liam just waited. He knew what Scott wanted to ask; his alpha’s scent was a flurry of guilt and reticence, underlaid with determination. “How do you trust him? How do you know he won’t betray us again?” Liam watched Scott’s face and catalogued his scent for another second before answering.

“I never tried to forget who he was, or what he did. I always remember that he isn’t suddenly a different person. I just know him better. He’s saved me a couple times when he was sure it would get him killed. If you asked him, and if you called bullshit on his first couple of answers, he would ‘get upset’ and ‘reveal’ that he’d been earning my trust and affection so that I wouldn’t send him back to hell.” Scott was still clearly concerned, but Liam wasn’t sure how to fix that. He just shrugged and sat back in the grass.

“Why do you think I’m so protective of him? How I never let him defend himself against you guys? I always stand between him and Chris, I always bite your head off when you express doubt.” Scott blinked at him, thrown by the shift in Liam’s tone.

“I…” his face grew slightly red and he rolled his shoulders. “Honestly, I thought it was because you have a crush on him, and you care about him.” Liam knew his own face was growing red at the accusation.

But…

It was half true, wasn’t it?

So he just shrugged again.

“I won’t lie and say I don’t care about him, or even that I don’t have a huge crush on him. But I also know he can defend himself. He doesn’t need me to do it for him. But I do it anyway. Yes, it’s part reflexive because I care about him, but I never stop myself because I want it obvious that I care about him.” He had never said these things out loud before, and he could feel his face burning. He wasn’t ashamed of his feelings for Theo.

Argent’s voice ripped his attention away from Scott and lit a fire underneath him.

“This is why I think he should give up the sword, he’s clearly not capable of a rational decision on the matter.”

Liam opened his mouth to shout something at the hunter at the same time as the Sheriff began responding, but another voice from the woods distracted him.

“Aw, it’s sweet that you care so much, Little Wolf.”

Liam leaped into the air at Theo’s voice, not having expected the duo to return so quickly. He spun around to find the chimera grinning brightly at him, and Alec fighting down a grin. Still heated from Argent’s comment, but wanting to interact with Theo more than the hunter, Liam acted on an idea before his big-boy-brain told him not to.

Lifting one fist, he used his other to mime a crank. His middle finger slowly into the air, and he kept his glare on Theo. Making a little mechanical whirring noise, he spun his arm so the middle finger was pointing at Theo. With a careful dose of telekinesis, Liam bit out a “fuck you!” and pretended his finger was a cannon. Theo went flying across the yard with a surprised scream.

Alec also leaped with a scream.

“Liam!” Scott scolded, shoving Liam’s shoulder roughly.

“Sorry, Alec!”

“You didn’t touch him!” The new werewolf screamed, wide eyes trained on Liam. His features were furry again, but they melted back to human even as Liam watched. Theo really was amazing at indoctrinating people to the supernatural.

“It’s fairly new. A few of us got psychic powers from a freaky thing we found in the woods.” Liam explained quickly, waving his hand in dismissal. “It’s completely unrelated to being a werewolf.”

“Mostly.” Theo muttered as he drew closer. Liam smirked as he rubbed his sore chest. Alec just blinked at Theo, evidently glad he was okay but not knowing how to act. Liam turned to glare at Argent, mind returning to his comment.

The asshole was still definitely gunning to send Theo back to hell. Or at least for everyone to be prepared to send him back. Liam wanted to go over there and give the asshole another piece of his mind. He’d already said everything he needed to on the matter, but some reiteration couldn’t hurt.

He was forestalled by Theo’s arm landing heavily around his shoulder.

“You’re gonna pay for that, asshole. That hurt.” He lightly drove his elbow into Theo’s ribs, but didn’t pull out from under the older boy’s arm.

“You scared the shit out of me, you deserved it.” Theo just shrugged in response. Liam turned his attention back to Argent, but Melissa and the Sheriff were both talking to him. He eavesdropped just a little bit as Scott turned to ask Alec about his run with Theo.

“It’s not your job to play God, Chris.”

“He’s too dangerous to just let hang around without some recourse for if he betrays us again.”

“Do you really think he’d want to spend the rest of his life on the run? Every law enforcement agency in the country would be looking for him-“

Liam tuned out the conversation. None of it really mattered.

But a thought made him stand up straighter and shrug off Theo’s arm in favor of looking him in the eye.

“Come home with me. We’ll come back, but there’s something I wanna do real quick.” Theo stared at him for a moment, thinking, before nodding.

“Lead the way.”

At the prompt, Liam lifted himself into the air and took of like a rocket. He let a grin take over his face as Alec’s surprised scream reached him. Theo joined him a moment later and then, conjuring a shield to protect him from the air, they flew toward his house.

Liam led them to his room and then slid to his knees, reaching underneath his bed for the duffle bag he’d shoved underneath months previous. Theo remained a silent viewer as he dug around, finally finding the bag and pulling it out. He quickly unzipped it and shoved aside all the spare lacrosse gear he kept in there.

Folded within several articles of sports clothing were the pieces of Kira’s sword.

He took the hilt of the sword out of its shirt-wrapping, replaced all the other clothes, zipped the bag, and shoved it back under his bed. Spinning around he lifted himself to his feet and approached Theo.

The chimera’s eyes were trained on the piece of the sword in his hand, wide with an emotion Liam couldn’t quite figure out. As usual, his chemosignals were of no help.

“Here.” He held out the hilt of the sword. Theo just blinked at it, wide eyes flickering back and forth between Liam’s face and the hilt in his hand. Liam just waited. It took a minute, but Theo finally seemed to overcome whatever paralysis had struck him and took the metal piece from Liam.

“Why?” Liam lifted an eyebrow, about to make a snarky comment. Then he realized that, for all Theo was good at understanding him, he wasn’t a real mind reader. He thought back to a few minutes ago, when Theo had overheard him explaining to Scott that he wanted it to be obvious that he cared.

Go for broke, he figured.

“Because I don’t want you to go back there ever again. I want you to take this piece and hide it somewhere that I don’t know about. That way no one can ever use the sword against you, because it won’t be complete without you giving up this last piece.” Theo just stared at him. Liam shrugged and continued, dropping his gaze for a moment. “I don’t want to destroy it, because there might come a day when we can’t kill some monster or other and imprisoning it in the sword is the best option. But…” he looked up again.

Theo’s eyes were shimmering. Liam just quirked a small smile and finished his thought.

“But not you. I know you have my back, and this is an easy way to show you that I’ve got yours.”

“I…” Theo trailed off, blinking heavily. “I’m not…” Liam smirked and shrugged. He felt ridiculously pleased that he’d gotten Theo so choked up the cocky asshole couldn’t think of anything to say.

“You don’t have to say anything. Just hide it so I don’t have to worry about being used against you.” Theo snorted out a laugh, although Liam wasn’t sure what was funny.

“If someone was gonna use you against me, it wouldn’t be because of the sword.” Liam’s brows furrowed, uncertain what exactly Theo meant by that. “Never mind.” The chimera just shook his head and then pulled Liam into a tight hug. “Thanks, Liam. This…means a lot to me.” Liam pulled back and turned them to head back out of the house.

“Just don’t hide it near the bridge. That’s literally the first place anyone who thinks they know you would look for it.” Theo missed a step and turned wide eyes on Liam. He smirked. Obviously the idiot had been about to do _just_ that. “I told you, I know you.” They stepped outside and Liam shut the door, thinking about turning the deadbolt to lock it as they walked away.

“Fine, I won’t hide it near the bridge.”

“Don’t hide it in the tunnels, either. Unless you’ve got a special locked place no one except you and the Dread Doctors could access.” Again, Theo stalled, frown marring his face as Liam undoubtedly crushed his plans.

“Fine. I won’t hide it there either.” Liam lifted himself into the air and turned around, watching Theo as he drifted away. “Go ahead, I’ll meet you back there soon.” He nodded in response, a small grin in place as he watched the chimera think.

“I’ll make sure to save you some pot roast.”

He turned and flew away. He didn’t want to see which direction Theo went to hide the sword. It was supposed to be a secret. Liam didn’t want to know where it might be.

He trusted Theo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's the end! I hope you've all enjoyed reading this.
> 
> I've got plans for a sequel series! If anyone has played the game Code Vein, it's going to feature themes similar to the game. If you haven't, no worries. it's not going to be a crossover, so much as it will be inspired by, much like this work was inspired by Chronicle. It'll be a while before I post it, but I've got ideas flowing quickly.


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